


High Stakes

by lilacsigil



Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-31 05:00:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21440614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacsigil/pseuds/lilacsigil
Summary: Mystique and Ororo are both at the casino in Sydney to find the same item: an updated Genoshan power-suppression collar. When Ororo immediately recognises a disguised Mystique, Mystique feels the hand of Destiny.
Relationships: Ororo Munroe/Raven | Mystique
Comments: 5
Kudos: 25
Collections: Femslash Exchange 2019





	High Stakes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sheliak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheliak/gifts).

"What do you want, Mystique?" Ororo turned on the stocky middle-aged man behind her and glared at his bright tropical shirt. Her hair was hidden in an elaborately wrapped scarf and her eyes brown rather than pale blue, but Mystique never mistook a face. 

"How did you know?" Mystique asked her, letting her eyes flash gold, but not changing otherwise. 

Ororo didn't answer, instead grabbing her by the shoulder and marching her away from the bar. 

"I didn't think casinos were really your style." Mystique tried poking at Ororo while they walked. "Or has all that Wakandan wealth gone to your head?"

"Firstly, it's not my wealth, and not personally T'Challa's, either. Secondly, we're divorced."

"Ah yes, the Phoenix Five attack. Wasn't that exciting?" 

"T'Challa was not impressed." Ororo steered Mystique into the elevator and pressed the button for the twentieth floor. 

"Oh, a hook-up! Unexpected, but I'm down for it." 

Ororo did not dignify that with a response.

In Ororo's hotel room, Mystique changed from the man in the tropical shirt to her blue form and flopped down on the bed, enjoying the crisp white bedlinen. "So, how did you spot me? I can't feel Chuck around anywhere. And I know Logan's at the school right now."

"I'm not going to ask how you know that," Ororo told her. "The explanations, such as it is, is here." She handed Mystique an old-fashioned birthday card, the kind with a pastel-soft girl on a swing and a big pink number 5 in the corner. 

Mystique frowned and opened it. Inside, in a familiar hand, was written today's date and, right over the top of the birthday greeting,

_Three pink pineapples in front of you  
Raven in yellow pineapples behind you._

"Ah. Irene." 

"Yes. You may keep the card, if you wish."

"Thank you." Raven stashed it in the pocket behind her skull belt. "And the pink pineapples – the neon decorations at the bar?"

"That's when I realised, yes. Are you here for the same reason that I am?"

"The collars that some bright spark reverse-engineered from old Genoshan technology? I haven't been able to track down who's making them, but I heard there was a deal going down at the casino here in Sydney tonight. Same for you?" 

"I'm the buyer," Ororo told her. "Well, I'm posing as a representative of Wakanda, newly interested in anti-mutant technologies. Princess Shuri tipped us off."

"Kind of her." Mystique didn't trust Wakandans for a moment, but she could trust in Ororo's personal connections. She stood and shifted into a tall, stern-faced Wakandan man, technology glittering in his earrings and the lapels and cuffs of his conservatively cut suit. "Would you care to take a bodyguard?"

Ororo looked her over and touched the tiny, glowing writing on one cuff. "You speak Wakandan?"

"Hardly. That's copied from a suit I saw T'Challa wear once. It's probably appallingly out of date." 

"You'd better tone it down. You're posing as a member of the royal family."

"Well, thank you for the fashion edit!" Mystique shifted the writing to faint lines instead. 

"Better." Ororo sighed. "Whatever you're up to here tonight, don't do it. I don't want to have to divert my attention from this deal to fight you instead."

"Oh, honey, don't you feel that Destiny has brought us together?"

Ororo smiled, slightly, despite herself. "How often do you get to use that line?"

"Not as often as I'd like. I really am here for the mutant collars. They put one on Rogue once, and I don't forgive that."

"I believe you. I also believe that's not all you're here for."

"Fair. Now, let's go cut a deal." Mystique let her current stern face smile, though it wasn't used to the expression.

Ororo descended the stairs onto the main floor of the casino like the queen she was, toned leg extending from the high slit in her glittering gown, made even taller by the black and gold patterned head wrap that disguised her white hair. Mystique stayed slightly behind her and to one side, her face deliberately blank, gaze raking across the casino floor, alert to threats. A mutter of interest spread through the tables, but Ororo ignored everyone and headed straight for the blackjack table. Mystique took up her station at Ororo's elbow.

"Sir, non-players need to stand back from the table, please," the croupier asked, deferentially. Mystique didn't move until Ororo nodded, then took a polite step away. 

When she thought about it, it didn't surprise Mystique that Ororo was an adept player of blackjack. She'd had her time on the streets and was a good reader of people when she needed to be, and wasn't putting on the whole Goddess-above-humanity act. She looked like she was playing extravagantly, but Mystique could see the tiny movements of her head as she counted every card. She didn't win every hand, but was coming out substantially ahead. It reminded her of raising money for the Brotherhood with Irene. Raven always wore a different face to avoid trouble, but they'd waltz from slot machines to card tables all around Las Vegas or Macau or Monte Carlo until Irene declared they had enough. 

"Madame Azaru?" A casino employee tried to approach Ororo until Mystique put an arm out in front of him. 

"Do not move closer," Mystique told him, putting on a very slight Wakandan accent. 

"Yes, sir, but I have a message for Madame Azaru."

"When this hand is finished."

Ororo completed the hand, pulled in her winnings and turned on her stool. "Let him speak."

The casino employee bowed politely. "Madame, Dr Gill is ready for your meeting."

"Thank you." Ororo gave the man a casino chip. "Lead on."

Mystique fell automatically into bodyguard position, slightly behind and to the side of Ororo, and they followed the employee to the elevator. 

They emerged high up in the casino, to the smell of cigarette and cigar smoke, the walls panelled in dark wood. Australians were usually strict about indoor smoking, so this must be the area for the international high rollers – no sense inviting wealthy Chinese to the country only to prohibit them smoking while they spent their cash! Mystique sometimes felt a little nostalgic for the days of smoking everywhere – not for the smoking so much but for Irene who was there with her – but tonight she was focused on Ororo. It really was a magnificently fitted gown, and Mystique filed away the details of the seaming and drape for later reference. 

The casino employee escorted them to a small, private lounge where a middle-aged Eurasian woman in an expensive suit awaited them. She also had a bodyguard, a broad-chested man with an impressive scar down one cheek and a corresponding white streak in his gingery beard. He briefly checked out Mystique; she nodded at him politely while doing the same. The woman in the suit remained seated on the one of the deep brown leather couches. There was a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket on the table, but otherwise the room was very plain and easily scoped. That was probably the point.

"Just push the button if you need anything, and I'll be right with you." The employee finished his spiel and scuttled out of the way. 

Ororo swanned in and took a seat opposite the woman in the suit. 

"Dr Gill," she said, inclining her head. 

"Madame Azaru. It's a pleasure to meet in person."

Mystique let the door swing shut behind her and stood opposite the other man, the perfect bodyguard. She didn't personally know this Gill woman, but her style of jewellery – multiple rings and necklaces – and her accent marked her as most likely from Madripoor. On the plus side, that most likely meant she was interested in a genuine, if costly, deal. On the minus side, the deal she was making might not be the one that she was actually offering Ororo, but some other deal with some other person entirely. 

Ororo and Dr Gill exchanged pleasantries, and had the bodyguard pour them champagne. Ororo drank hers down and placed the glass firmly on the table. 

"Excellent. Now, to business."

Dr Gill took out a flat velvet box, the kind used for jewellery, and placed it open on the table. Mystique was pretending not to pay attention, but she couldn't entirely pull that off. It was a silver collar with a solid clasp, much finer than the clunky Genoshan ones, though they had been deliberately designed that way to show the user's status, or rather the lack of it. This could pass as actual jewellery, making it easy to carry such an illegal item across borders or into places it shouldn't be.

Ororo leaned forward and unclipped a Wakandan kimoyo bead from her necklace. It emitted a bright blue beam of light that Ororo slowly moved over the device. 

"I thought those things didn't work outside Wakanda?" Dr Gill spoke in a tone of mild interest, but Mystique had seen her twitch when it turned on.

Ororo laughed gently, as if she had been presented with a silly statement from a child. "That's only when they need to access the national database. As analysis tools, they can work anywhere."

"And how do I know you're not copying my design for later replication, Ms Azaru?"

That was interesting: if Gill was the designer, she must be in a desperate position to be negotiating directly. 

"Because I am ready to offer you a fair price," Ororo told her. "For exclusive use of this technology, forty-six million dollars US, at current exchange rates."

Gill blinked hard. She hadn't been expecting such an offer, then. She rallied quickly, though. "Sixty million."

"You have my offer. It's a one-time deal."

Gill really wanted that money: she'd been impassive until the figure had been mentioned, and although she was still trying to play it cool, the corner of her eye was twitching and she'd leaned towards Ororo. "When will this payment be made?"

"Immediately upon signing the agreement, the Swiss account in question will be released to you."

"Then I agree." 

Ororo put the kimoyo bead on the table and with a press of her finger it projected a contract on the table in blue light. Ororo pressed her thumb in one of the projected boxes towards the bottom, and Gill, after a quick but thorough read, did the same. 

"Excellent," Ororo said, picking up the kimoyo bead and vanishing the contract. She closed the jewellery box with a snap, and that's when Mystique felt herself involuntarily shifting to her blue form. 

Thinking quickly, she reached in to snatch the box from Ororo's hands, to pretend that Ororo hadn't known it was her. Ororo fought back, helpfully shielding herself with the box so that Mystique could easily rip it from her hands. Mystique spun on her heel and kicked open the door to the small suite before the bearded bodyguard could grab her. 

Mystique fled down the hall, frustrated that the box, or the necklace within, was suppressing her powers. She normally made small bodily adjustments to whatever she was doing – more muscular legs, larger lung capacity – but now she couldn't. Well, can't rely on that, she told herself, better to train for all circumstances and not get lazy. She could hear Ororo behind her, shouting something that she presumed was in Wakandan, and smirked. It was fun working with an X-Man! She picked up Mystique's cues so well! 

Sprinting past the bank of elevators and a surprised casino employee, Mystique made it through the fire door and into the stairwell. To her surprise, she ran directly into the bodyguard she'd left behind in the meeting room, with force that knocked the breath out of her. 

"How did you get here?" she gasped out, still hanging onto the velvet box. 

"Well, not with mutant powers, obviously," he replied, grabbing both her arms and hauling her up off the floor. She let the box fall, then got her feet under her and used his momentum to throw him over her shoulder and into the concrete wall of the stairwell. He groaned and slipped a few stairs down, but Mystique turned to see yet another one of him picking up the box. 

"Oh, come on!" she said, exasperated. "I've worked with Multiple Man before, but this is ridiculous."

"Yeah, you mutants are always pissed off when someone fights you on your own turf!" He aimed a kick at Mystique. She dodged, but stumbled on the unconscious body of the guard she had thrown into the wall. He groaned and grabbed her ankle.

Fortunately, Ororo had caught up with them by now. Mystique heard the rumble of thunder outside and had a moment to think how that might be possible with powers suppressed before shrugging: Ororo's abilities had always been hard to define. Ororo grabbed the top of the doorframe and swung forward in a hard double-kick to the man's chest. Her dress was hiked up to her waist for free movement, and Mystique admired her long legs as they went by. Mystique grabbed for the box as the man dropped it, but she was pulled off-balance by the grip on her ankle and hit the ground instead. 

"Let go!" she shouted, kicking at the man's face. He did not, and in fact seemed to be unconscious despite his strong grip. 

"He's controlling doppelgangers somehow!" Mystique told Ororo, amid another peal of thunder outside. 

"My main concern is why you were suddenly exposed? Are your powers blocked?" Ororo stayed in character as Azaru. "Your presence was not part of our deal."

"Yes!" Mystique yelled, frustrated at being unable to peel the man's fingers off her ankle. Bending a finger back usually caused enough pain to make anyone let go, but he was completely out and feeling no pain. 

"Just watching out for your well-being, Madame," the bodyguard said politely, though he had reclaimed the box for himself. "It's no surprise that a notorious mutant criminal like her would be trying to steal this technology."

"I will leave her to the local authorities. But you will return my purchase now."

"Of course." He held it out for her. Just as she took it, Mystique saw him slide a finger along the side of the box, but before she could alert Ororo, a massive electric charge arced from the box into Ororo. Her hands still gripping the box, claw-like, she was thrown into the hallway and Mystique heard her body slide along the floor and hit a wall. 

Mystique gave up on trying to free herself from the unconscious man's grip and targeted the standing man instead. He was just within her reach, and she chopped the side of her hand into the back of his knee so that he would fall towards her. He fell, but only to one knee, and then there was yet another iteration of him, all three of them restraining Mystique, by both her arms and her ankle. 

"Who are you?" she asked, sagging into their grip in the hope that they would loosen it. 

"Genosha was a paradise!" he shouted. "Your kind destroyed and colonised us! That scientist put together the last pirated scraps of the Genegineer's work, but we were watching! We were all watching!" 

"Strange that someone so opposed to mutants is using powers to fight me."

"It's not genetic deviation like you. It's technology."

"Good to know." Mystique had turned herself enough in the man's threefold grasp to see down the corridor, planning to check if Ororo was all right. She saw the scientist, Dr Gill, standing in the door to the meeting room, her mouth wide, then looked past her to see that Ororo was indeed all right. Better than all right, she was hovering in the air, wrapped in tiny lightning strikes, and had turned towards Mystique. Her head wrap had vanished somewhere and her hair stood out from her head in a crackling halo. 

Mystique took the moment to hurl herself backwards down the stairs, an unexpected direction that forced the two standing men, at least, to let go of her. The unconscious man, still gripping her ankle, slid down the stairs with her. That was fine: she could use him to break the fall, but she needed to get clear right now. 

Ororo swept into the stairwell in full fury, concrete scorching at her approach. Mystique saw a gratifying expression of fear sneak across the bearded man's faces before he was slammed into the walls by the force of Ororo's charge. 

"You foolish creature!" Ororo roared, her eyes glowing bright. "How dare you try to kill me with electricity! Lightning bends to my command!"

"You're not from Wakanda!" the man gasped, then the extra versions of him vanished, leaving only the unconscious man under Mystique. Finally his fingers relaxed and Mystique could kick free. Weirdly, though, she still couldn't change form. 

"Thanks for the assist," she told Ororo, trying to sound casual even as her hair stood up on end in Ororo's charged field. "How are your powers working?"

A huge clap of thunder came from outside. 

"They're not entirely," Ororo hissed. "I managed to re-shape that charge only because it is so difficult to separate my self and the natural world. It should have been a lethal shock."

She let her feet touch the ground and the power discharged into the concrete, leaving a giant scorch mark. Even without the glow and the purple lightning flashes, she still looked terrifying, and Mystique kept an admiring step clear as Ororo marched to the meeting room to confront Dr Gill. 

Ororo pinned Gill against the wall with one hand, towering over the scientist. 

"This was a trap. Who's behind it?"

"I don't know! I swear!"

Mystique slunk up behind Ororo. "Try again, Doctor Gill. You might not have known it was a trap, but you know who was interested in this meeting."

Give a scientist a puzzle and they'll work pathetically hard to solve it. Gill thought for a moment, then her eyes lit up. 

"Yes! They were happy to let me deal with the Wakandans. It was you they were after."

"Who?"

"Kimura. When you released MGH in Madripoor, it empowered a whole lot of people, and it didn't wear off for everyone. She said it made her life complicated. The research facility where I work, it, um-"

"You're not on trial here. Tell us." Ororo slipped into Good Cop and let Gill sit down. Mystique wouldn't have bought it for a second, but Dr Gill seemed relieved to have someone to talk to, leaning towards Ororo eagerly as she spoke.

"Okay, so the research facility, our usual job is to reverse engineer proprietary tech so Madripoor can sell the knock-offs. We work with all kinds of things, from medical genetics to electronics. Someone's got a pretty nice Iron Man suit working, down the hall from me! Kimura was originally interested in our genetic work, but when I reported that I had these old Genoshan collars re-made and improved –" she caught sight of Ororo's face and gulped. "I mean, these terrible things from Genosha, uh, she sent me to sell it and said Mystique would be interested. She sent Gerry with me – he's the one who worked out the simultaneous teleportation process – but that's all she told me." 

Mystique didn't like the way that Gill was sidling closer to Ororo, but Ororo could handle herself. As Gill talked, Mystique slipped out into the hall to retrieve the collar and hopefully switch off whatever inhibition field was causing problems. 

The casino employee who had been standing by the elevators was sitting quietly on the floor behind a large plant. He had a dazed smile on his face, softly singing to himself. Mystique quickly checked the man for injury, but found nothing, and frowned. Nothing she'd seen of Gerry's powers should be able to do that. She took one of the man's Doc Martens so that she could use the insulated sole and cautiously poked the velvet box that had electrocuted Ororo. No charge left. She flipped the box open and took out the disgusting collar that Gill had made so pretty and examined it. There was a tiny switch at the join of the clasp to the necklace, so Mystique flicked that and tested the results, changing her hand into a copy of Ororo's. Perfect. She flexed the lens of her right eye – she didn't have tremendous control over it, but enough to give better vision near or far when required – and looked closer at the switch. It had three possible positions, not two, so Mystique turned it to the third position and saw her hand change to blue again, her eye losing its extra acuity. She dropped the necklace on the floor and, once out of contact, she could alter her form. She understood the settings now: first field suppression, then off, then individual suppression. Wrapping the necklace – switched off – around her wrist, she returned to the meeting room. 

She changed into Gerry's form, scratching at the bristliness of his beard before she got to the room. As she had half-expected from Gill's efforts to get closer to Ororo, Dr Gill had taken control of the situation. She had her hand on Ororo's face, the rings on her fingers flashing with energy. 

Gill was concentrating hard. "You will capture Mystique. You will take her to the waterside at Pirrama Park at midnight. You will give her to me. You will forget my face. You will – aah!" 

Mystique had punched her in the throat to shut her up, then grabbed her wrists and hauled her away from Ororo, being careful not to touch any of her rings or bracelets. "Nice work, Doctor. Should have disposed of the elevator guy better, though."

"Mystique!" Dr Gill rasped out, then Ororo punched her too, and she slipped unconscious to the carpet. 

"I apologise, Mystique," Ororo said, "But it seems that her telepathic suggestions are working." She advanced on Mystique, tiny clouds beginning to gather around her head. 

Mystique didn't waste time answering, but let her form shift to her own smaller and faster one, and ducked as she sprinted out the door. A little but potent lightning bolt hit the door frame as she ran. There was no way Mystique was capable of fighting Ororo with her full powers, but the incomplete telepathic compulsion would most likely mean that Ororo was holding back as much as she could. She hoped. 

She ran past the partially-hidden casino worker, who was now watching his own wiggling fingers in delight, and into the stairwell. Instead of running down towards Gerry's unconscious form, she ran upwards and around the corner to avoid further lightning bolts. A raincloud formed at the very top of the stairwell and poured water down the concrete stairs. Mystique jumped up on the handrail and clambered up that until the deluge passed, then kept running upwards on the wet stairs. She could hear the rumbling of thunder behind her as well as outside the building, but she didn't dare stop to look. 

Finally Mystique reached the top of the emergency stairs, buffeted by brutal winds with a touch of sleet, and dragged herself through the door at the top and out onto the roof. She knew Ororo could have done much worse, so she must be fighting the telepathic command. Mystique wasn't sure how much leniency – or hell, even mutant solidarity – she could expect from Ororo. They were hardly on good terms most of the time, despite Irene pushing them to work together tonight.

The night was much warmer than she had expected, considering the icy rain still flying out of the stairwell, and tropical thunderclouds were rolling in across the harbour. The warm air caressed her stinging cold skin after the sleet attack, revitalising her, and she quickly scrambled up on the concrete barrier at the edge of the building, out of Ororo's immediate path.

"Mystique!" Ororo called from the stairwell, and Mystique didn't know if it was a warning or a summoning. Ororo floated up out of the stairway in a swirl of wind so strong that it nearly knocked Mystique from her perch, but she regained her balance quickly and leapt for Ororo's back. 

Ororo turned just at the right moment, as if the winds had told her where her target was, and caught Mystique against her chest, her strong arms locking her in place. The winds around them formed a tight vortex, binding them even closer together. 

"I have captured Mystique," she said robotically, and Mystique could not wriggle free. Instead she tilted her face upwards and, without warning, kissed Ororo on the lips. 

Ororo stopped her recital of the telepathic commands and her tight hold relaxed from crushingly strong to just strong. Still too firm for Mystique to escape, though. She kept up the kiss, biting at Ororo's lower lip to try to startle her out of the commands, and Ororo started to respond, kissing her in return, her tongue tentatively darting between Mystique's lips. Thunder rolled around them and a tropical rain started to sweep the roof. Mystique shrunk down her body size to someone the same height but much thinner, and that gave her a moment to get her left arm free before Ororo tightened her grip again. This telepathic command was annoyingly sticky! 

She had, of course, freed the hand that had the power suppression necklace, and quickly flung that around Ororo's neck, switching the collar to individual suppression as she did so. The pressure of the blasting winds immediately died down, but the tropical rain continued on, soaking both of them. Ororo staggered away and Mystique slapped her face, first one side then the other, while she had the advantage. 

Ororo sat down on the concrete roof as the rain poured over her. Mystique advanced, but Ororo held out a hand to stop her, and she waited. Ororo slumped forward, pulling her knees up to her chest and letting the rain drench her bare legs and flowing hair. Then, to Mystique's surprise, Ororo angrily spat. 

"Goddess take them! Double-crossers and traitors!" 

Mystique shrugged. "I've been called worse. I doubt they're going to care."

"They'll care when they try to collect their money and find they have to travel to Wakanda to receive the pass code," Ororo laughed, her eyes sparkling. She switched off the necklace and removed it, stuffing it in a hidden pocket of her skirt. These Wakandan dresses had everything.

Mystique laughed. "Nice work. Are you still trying to capture me and take me to that park? There's got to be a boat waiting to take me to Madripoor – want to hijack it?"

"Right now, I just want to sink it to the bottom of the harbour," Ororo muttered.

"I'm up for that, too!" 

"First, though, we have unfinished business."

"We do?" Mystique eyed her suspiciously as she stood, the soaking wet gown still holding its shape perfectly as it cascaded around her. 

"Quite apart from the security staff about to make it to the roof, yes." Ororo lifted her arms and a warm breeze picked them both up and into the air, away from the casino rooftop and away over Sydney Harbour, the rain beating on the water and the green edges of the city. Ororo's clothes and Mystique's skin dried in the light wind, and Mystique felt surprisingly comfortable, despite being so high above the water and entirely at Ororo's mercy. She liked working with a partner, but the nature of her mutant power and, to be honest, her secretive nature meant that this was vanishingly rare. Even so, she was still surprised when Ororo leaned forward and kissed her as they landed on the very top arc of the great steel bridge. 

"Oh, that unfinished business!" Mystique returned the kiss, sliding her hands up and under Ororo's beautiful gown, with that convenient long slit at the left front. Ororo pulled the gown up and over her head and spread it out on the steel of the bridge, providing them a soft bed inside the curved grey girder. 

"The Wakandans really do think of everything." Mystique paused to admire Ororo's glorious body laid out before her, powerful muscles beneath soft brown skin. 

"You're only surprised by clothes because you never bother with them at all," Ororo replied, taking Mystique's hand and placing it firmly on her lower belly. Mystique took the hint and slid her hand lower, tangling in the soft white hair there. "And shift out of those clothes," Ororo ordered. 

Mystique let them go with a shiver, her natural blue form exposed in a way that often made her, even now, a little uncomfortable. But she remembered that it was Irene that had exposed her to Ororo in the first place, and at that she smiled and relaxed. Ororo stretched up to take Mystique's nipple in her mouth, her back arching and the tropical rain flooding over them. 

Sated, they both lay on the spread-out gown, the warm rain settling in for the night. 

"Does Destiny often set you up this way?" Ororo asked, her voice soft and deep.

"Mmm. Sometimes. She could only see probabilities, not certainties, so it doesn't always work out." 

"Still. Good to know she was watching out for you, far into the future."

"Speaking of which, it's nearly midnight. You want to go meet that boat Dr Gill told you was coming? We can hand them over to the local authorities: they're obsessed with borders and smuggling here."

Ororo stretched out long, muscles playing under her skin as she did. "I suppose we should. Though I'm very tempted to send them a lightning bolt and leave it at that."

Mystique laughed. "I'd say I'm rubbing off on you, but it's literally true." She hauled Ororo up to her feet. "Get dressed. Let's go. No rest for the wicked."

Ororo scooped up her gown and wrapped herself up in it. "Are you counting yourself in that? Because I am not. Come to my hotel room afterwards, rest well."

Mystique let herself smile at that. She was sure she'd return to enemy status soon enough, but she could enjoy this teamwork while it lasted. Enjoy it a great deal indeed.


End file.
